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As 2010 winds to a close, we came across great advice for kickin’ out the old apps on Facebook, and why you should do so. “The developers of these older applications required you to hand over your entire digital identity, and often have access to all of your personal data–including things like marital status, personal photos and videos,” says author Vanessa Dennis. From Delete Older Facebook Apps — or Risk Everyone’s Privacy, Ms. Dennis points out that:

In 2009, Facebook made several highly publicized privacy changes as part of a settlement with the Canadian government. This means newer apps offer much more privacy control for the user.

So in addition to monitoring your profile privacy settings on Facebook, you should also consider deleting older apps and installing newer versions. Here is an example of the data access from an older YouTube app and then the newer YouTube app. Much less personal information is available, and much less is required for the app to work.

The author includes five clear, illustrated steps for checking on your apps and making changes. Now at the end of this calendar year, a little housecleaning seems in order.